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WXIA
WXIA-TV, virtual channel 11 (VHF digital channel 10), is an NBC-affiliated television station licensed to Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., as part of a duopoly with MyNetworkTV affiliate WATL (channel 36). The two stations share studios at One Monroe Place on the north end of midtown Atlanta; WXIA's transmitter is located in the city's east section, near Kirkwood. On cable, the station is available on channel 6 on both Comcast Xfinity and Charter Spectrum. WXIA-TV is popularly known within the Atlanta metropolitan area by its longtime on-air brand, "11 Alive", which the station has used since 1976. History The station signed on the air on September 30, 1951 as WLTV, an ABC affiliate on VHF channel 8 (the second Atlanta station on this channel after WSB-TV moved to channel 2 a year before), and was originally owned by a group of Atlanta businessmen. In 1953, the station was bought by Cincinnati-based Crosley Broadcasting Corporation, who changed its call letters to WLWA (often rendered as "WLW-A"). This aligned their Atlanta property with Crosley's other television stations, who took their call letters from its flagship radio station, WLW. Crosley then moved the station's over-the-air frequency to channel 11 in order to alleviate signal interference with WROM-TV (channel 9) in nearby Rome (which later moved north to Chattanooga, Tennessee as WTVC), with channel 8 being reallocated for non-commercial educational use by the Federal Communications Commission in May 1960 (WGTV was started by the University of Georgia on channel 8 in 1960). In 1962, WLWA was purchased by Indianapolis businessman Richard Fairbanks, via his WIBC, Inc., as part of a settlement between Crosley and Fairbanks. Crosley had started WLWI (now WTHR) in Indianapolis in 1957, but Fairbanks insisted that the last VHF allocation in Indianapolis should go to a local owner. Eventually, the two companies agreed to what amounted to a trade, in which Crosley kept WLWI while Fairbanks bought WLWA. The Atlanta station's callsign then became WAII-TV, using the slogan "The Eyes of Atlanta" and the calls standing for "Atlanta's 11" (II). The station was sold to Pacific & Southern Broadcasting in 1968 and on March 23 became known as WQXI-TV, aligning it with WQXI (AM) and FM (the calls originally used on channel 36, currently WATL, from 1954 to 1955). Pacific & Southern later merged with Combined Communications. The station assumed the WXIA-TV call letters on December 25, 1973. On September 20, 1976, WXIA first adopted "11 Alive" as its on-air branding, as part of Combined's practice of using the word "Alive" as part of the brand of most of their stations (two stations not owned by Combined also adopted the "11 Alive" branding that same year, then-independent station WPIX (now a CW affiliate) in New York City—which used the brand until 1986, and NBC affiliate WIIC in Pittsburgh, now WPXI—which used it until 1979). In 1979, Combined merged with the Gannett Company in what became the largest media merger in history up to that time. Following the acquisition, most of the former Combined stations stopped using the "Alive" brand, though WXIA continued to call itself "11 Alive". On September 1, 1980, WXIA swapped affiliations with WSB-TV and became an NBC affiliate. This could be traced to ratings: NBC slid to a very poor third place; meanwhile, ABC was in first place for most of the late 1970s and was seeking out affiliates with higher viewership in many markets, including Atlanta. ABC thus jumped at the chance to affiliate with longtime market leader WSB-TV. Some network daytime programs switched stations in August, before the full affiliation switch occurred. In August 1994, Gannett dropped the "11 Alive" moniker as part of the introduction of new on-air graphics for its newscasts and promos; however, the brand was so well established in Atlanta that viewer outcry forced Gannett to restore it after only a month; even so, the "11 Alive" brand was not fully restored until 1996, when the 11 Alive News title was restored for its newscasts (which were retitled 11 News with the removal of the "11 Alive" brand). On June 5, 2006, Gannett entered into an agreement to purchase WATL from the Tribune Company for $180 million, creating Atlanta's first television duopoly; the sale was finalized on August 7, 2006. WATL occasionally airs NBC programs when WXIA is not able due to extended breaking news and severe weather coverage, or special programming. As a result of the WATL acquisition, WXIA management decided to house the combined operation at WATL's facility at One Monroe Place, leaving WXIA's longtime studios at 1611 West Peachtree Street; WXIA and WATL began broadcasting from the new studios on July 27, 2008. Around the first week of October 2012, Gannett entered a dispute against Dish Network regarding compensation fees and Dish's AutoHop commercial-skip feature on its Hopper digital video recorders. Gannett ordered that Dish discontinue AutoHop on the account that it is affecting advertising revenues for WXIA and WATL. Gannett threatened to pull both stations should the skirmish continue beyond October 7 and Dish and Gannett fail to reach an agreement. The two parties eventually reached an agreement after extending the deadline for a few hours. On June 29, 2015, the Gannett Company split in two, with one side specializing in print media and the other side specializing in broadcast and digital media. WXIA and WATL were retained by the latter company, named Tegna. On January 24, 2019, WXIA debuted a new station logo for the first time in 26 years; the "11" in the new logo is similar to Louisville sister station WHAS-TV. Category:NBC affiliated stations Category:Channel 11 Category:1951 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1951 Category:Former ABC affiliates Category:Former NTA Film Network affiliates Category:Atlanta Category:Georgia Category:Tegna, Inc. Category:VHF Category:NBC Georgia Category:1953 Category:1962 Category:1968 Category:1973 Category:Justice Network Affiliates Category:Quest Affiliates Category:Former NBC Weather Plus Affiliates